A Brooklyn speeder was sentenced Wednesday to three to nine years in prison for killing a mother and two daughters and injuring a son in Gravesend in March.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Miriam Yarimi, 33, of Midwood, was sentenced following her Oct. 22 guilty plea to three counts of second-degree manslaughter. The DA had recommended the maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
Yarimi, whose license was suspended at the time of the accident, was speeding through a red light on Ocean Parkway in a 2023 Audi, according to prosecutors.
Video surveillance shows her using a cell phone while driving before her vehicle drove through a red light a block before the crash, narrowly avoiding other cars and continuing north on Ocean Parkway.
At the next intersection on Quentin Road, the mother, Natasha Saada, 34, was crossing Ocean Parkway from west to east, holding hands with her three children, Diana, 8, Deborah, 5, and Philip, 4. A Toyota Camry was in the process of turning right from Quentin Road onto Ocean Parkway and was waiting for the pedestrians to finish crossing, according to prosecutors.
When the family was a step or two from the sidewalk, the Audi driven by Yarimi sped through the intersection against the light, smashed into the back of the turning Toyota and plowed through the victims with her car continuing to roll over, stopping about 130 feet away. According to evidence obtained from the black box, the Audi was traveling at about 68 mph in a 25-mph zone, was at full throttle (suggesting the gas pedal was floored) and zero brake was applied, prosecutors said.
The mother and two daughters were killed at the scene. Her son suffered skull fractures, brain bleeding and had a kidney removed. The five occupants in the Toyota – the Uber driver, a mother and her three kids – sustained minor injuries. The Audi ended up upside down and had to be cut to get the defendant out. She suffered minor physical injuries.
“This defendant is a reckless driver who cared about only herself when she raced in the streets of Brooklyn and wiped away nearly an entire family," Gonzalez said in a statement. "She should not have been driving a car that day but, instead, she chose to callously ignore all traffic and safety laws when she caused this unspeakable carnage."
